IN HIGH SPIRITS: A devotee dances on the way the Gangamma temple carrying the traditional `Chapralu' in Tirupati on Tuesday. — Photo: K.V. Poornachandra Kumar

TIRUPATI: It was curtains to all the fun and frolic that marked the eight -day annual Gangamma jathara in Tirupati.

Events on the concluding on Tuesday opened with the traditional Chapralu. Right from the crack of dawn, devotees carrying the colourful `Chapralu' on their shoulders were seen going in a regular stream to the Gangamma temple dancing they way to the rhythm of `Thappetlu and Kommulu'.

As the `Chapralu' proceeded to the temple, their family members, including women and children dressed in their best, followed them with a fowl or a lamb or both to be offered to the goddess in line with an age-old convention. Some offered mere `pongallu' to fulfil their vow to the deity who is believed to keep diseases and evil spirits at bay.

Elaborate arrangements

Every inch in front of the temple was filled with devotees cooking `pongallu' and offering prayers to the deity. The temple trust board members and endowments authorities made elaborate arrangements at the shrine to regulate the crowd and ensure smooth darshan for the devotees many of whom also came from the surrounding villages. Government offices and business establishments declared a `local holiday'. While the children indulged in shopping and playing around, men, cutting across age-barrier, were in `high spirits'.

Service organisation and local corporate institutions served buttermilk and drinking water sachets to the devotees who thronged the temple braving the scorching sun.

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